Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Weekly action thread

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
Engineer, you are my hero!

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Thanks! I appreciate the compliment as well as your support for our actions.

[TheEngineer]

In case anyone uses this as a template, here are two typos I corrected before sending the letter, but not in time to edit.

[ QUOTE ]
My letter to the USTR:

June 29, 2007

The Honorable Susan Schwab
United States Trade Representative
600 17th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20508

Dear Ambassador Schwab:

I am writing ...Antigua’s demand for $3.4 billion ...(aside from the continuation of an unpopular prohibition).

I urge you ... Keeping our commitments ...After all, we made a commitment, and our word should be our bond.



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[TheEngineer]

Federal Reserve Reply

Dear *********:

Thank you for your thoughtful correspondence to Chairman Bernanke and for your suggestions concerning the Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.

The Chairman receives a great number of letters daily. As a public figure with many daily responsibilities, he is
unable to reply to those letters personally. However, he appreciates receiving observations and advice that bear on
the Federal Reserve's responsibilities, particularly from people who have concerns about how the economy is
functioning.

As you know, the Federal Reserve and the Department of the Treasury are working actively on a proposed rule to be
published in the Federal Register. As with any regulatory rulemaking, input from the public is very important. The
agencies are considering a wide range of methods for preventing transactions related to unlawful Internet gambling in order to determine the methods that best address this goal. As the act requires, the Federal Reserve plans to consult with the Department of Justice to obtain their views on the proposed rule.

The agencies will carefully consider all comments submitted in response to the proposed rule in crafting the final
rule.

Again, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.

Sincerely,

JPD
Board Staff


IF YOU NEED TO REPLY TO THIS EMAIL, YOU MUST DO SO FROM OUR PUBLIC WEB SITE AT:
http://www.federalreserve.gov .

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[TheEngineer]

Conservative site Townhall.com has an article about politicians without testicles (yes, for real), at http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PhilH...p;comments=true, so it seemed a good opportunity for me to post about Sen. Kyl [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] . Free free to add on.

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Sen. Kyl has none!

Sen. Jon Kyl has been so overly concerned about figuring out how to apply his big government social consevative principles to the "horror" of law-abiding Americans choosing to play poker online in the privacy of their own homes that he completely neglected the problems with our borders. So, he decided to treat law-abiding American Internet poker players like criminals while making illegal immigrants legal! Way to prioritize Johnny!!

Everyone: Care about freedom and limited government? I do. Show your support by taking two minutes to sign the petition at www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/306149419 . This petition will be delivered to every congressman and every senator this month.

Thanks.

[oldbookguy]

Just took a minute to look at townhall, nice place, nice comment.

Going to explore it some, I think we can make some hay there as well.

Also, looking at setting up a online poker players group to give us a unique spot to ADD to the presence we have, any name suggestions?

I'm not a super great webmaster, but built in tecnology helps, lol.

Been playing around with some back office stuff on one of the sites below, should be easy to build.
A few I have built recently:

www.tylerlestermotorsports.com
www.bandbauction.com
www.dickgraffauction.com
www.westongoldrobbery.com

note: I built them, I am not in charge of keeping these up to date in all cases!

obg

[TheEngineer]

July 8, 2007

Senator John McCain
United States Senate
241 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator McCain:

I am writing regarding your recent slip in the presidential polls. I think perhaps some of this has come from a change in perception over what the Straight Talk Express stands for. If you were to refocus your campaign by acting as a spokesman for individual freedoms and limited government, I believe you could win back significant support. I hope you will – real conservatives desperately need a champion.

As a limited government conservative in the tradition of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, I and many like me are disappointed by the takeover of our party by big government social “conservative” CINOs (conservatives in name only) who seek federal legislation outlawing everything to which they are personally opposed while spending like drunken sailors on everything else. The Republican Party used to believe in limited government and in individual rights. However, the big spending, big government social conservatives won’t ever go back to that, now that they’ve tasted the sweet, tantalizing flavor of government power. It appears that it is up to the rest of the Republican Party to reclaim the limited government mantle that is rightfully ours.

I ask you to stand strong for limited government and individual rights. A great place to start is with Internet poker, as this issue in particular demonstrates the divide between real limited government conservatives and the big government CINO infiltrators. The CINO thought process is as follows: “I don’t like Internet poker, therefore I want federal legislation to ban it for everyone”. That’s not conservative by any definition of the term. The conservative mindset (of someone who does not play Internet poker) is: “I don’t play Internet poker, so I won’t play…problem solved, and it required no federal restrictions on the liberties of others”. This is especially true given that the June 8 House Financial Services Committee hearing on Internet gaming conclusively proved that Internet gaming can be effectively regulated for underage gambling, compulsive gambling, fairness, tax collection, and other issues. I urge you to publicly support the right of Americans to choose to play poker online.

Thank you for your consideration. I wish you the best of luck with your run.

Sincerely,

[Legislurker]

Also, we have hearing on Frank's bill Thursday(according to majorwager, haven't verified independently yet). A call earlier in the week, and a followup after would not be amiss.
I don't think anything posted snail mail will get there.

[oldbookguy]

that Bill, HR 2895 - Fair Housing has nothing at all to do with nor at this time is it linked to Poker though some reports (Igamingnews) stated it did.

Still something we could supoport as a way of spending the tax dollars they would get from poker though....

obg


[ QUOTE ]
Also, we have hearing on Frank's bill Thursday(according to majorwager, haven't verified independently yet). A call earlier in the week, and a followup after would not be amiss.
I don't think anything posted snail mail will get there.

[/ QUOTE ]

[TheEngineer]

Well, we're making progress. IGREA just picked up two more cosponsors, Rep. Anthony Weiner [NY-D] and Rep. Bennie Thompson [MS-D], bringing us up to 28 cosponsors plus Rep. Frank. The UIGEA regs didn't get published on schedule, despite their push to get them out by the 10th. This is either great news (banks complaining) or neutral (administration trying to get them toughened...good for us in that they're weak now and that stakeholders like it that way, bad for obvious reasons), but we'll still likely wish to respond the same way....writing to Bernanke, Paulson, Gonzales, and Steven D. Laughton (the regs' focal point).

So, it seems we have opportunities. What do you all want to do this week?

[Legislurker]

My goal for this week and next is to get a story on The Drudge Report. We need to be working what we can on the Republican side of the populace, and that is where the younger, net savvy conservatives go for news. Stories there are read, talked about, and blogged on more than anywhere else online.